Does access to health insurance reduce the risk of miscarriages?: evidence from Mexico’s Seguro Popular

Abstract

This paper analyzes whether Mexico’s de-facto non-contributory health insurance program Seguro Popular had an effect on the risk of miscarriage during pregnancy. Using data on pregnancies over the 2004–08 period from the 2009 round of the National Survey on Demographic Dynamics (ENADID), and employing the staggered roll-out of the program as an identification strategy, it is found that it resulted in a significant reduction in the risk of a miscarriage. For the target population, a one percentage point increase in eligibility is found to decrease miscarriages by .04 percentage point at the average.